From now on, post links to interesting and useful science news here, with a short synposis or a snippet. Sure, if you think that some news article could generate pages of debate, make a separate thread for it to keep it neat.

I will start off -- first one is best, whereas the last one will have the most far-reaching consequences of use:


Ins and Outs of Teledildonics
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2004/09/65064

Quote :

"The Sinulator is a device that lets you connect a sex toy to your computer so that other people can control it for you over the internet. The Fleshlight is a standard, sleeve-style vibrator for men, with a twist: It's also a transmitter. It measures the speed and force of each thrust and communicates those metrics to the software, which translates them into vibration and pulse on the other end. In other words, a man can be thrusting in Cleveland while a woman is penetrated in Seattle, "

Laptops a Hot Fertility Issue
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2004/12/65970

Quote :

"Men who regularly balance their laptop computers on their laps when working may be jeopardizing their ability to have children, according to a new study from fertility researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. "

Geeky Rare-Earth Magnets Repel Sharks
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2007/05/sharkmagnets

Quote :

"In testing at the Bimini Biological Research Station shark lab in the Bahamas, Stroud and Herrmann have found that sharks dramatically avoid magnets made from neodymium, iron and boron. The magnets even rouse sharks from tonic immobility, a coma-like state induced by turning them upside down. "

$150,000 Sound System Boasts Awesome Fidelity, Amplification
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2007/06/steinway

Quote :

"After a long, brain-breaking discussion about digital-to-analog converters and transient waves, he put on the theme song from The Pink Panther. I could almost smell the brass of the high-hat. After that, we listened to assorted symphonies, Peter Gabriel and New Order. It was an almost schizophrenic experience -- I heard background voices, breaths and sounds that I'd never perceived before on other speakers."

Brain 'Pacemaker' Tickles Your Happy Nerve
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/05/nerve

Quote :

"SAN DIEGO -- A novel medical technique that smuggles an electrical charge into the brain through the vagus nerve is proving at least as effective as medication in controlling severe depression, psychiatrists say. In vagus nerve stimulation, or VNS, a two-inch diameter, .25 inch thick disk is surgically tucked under the skin near the left collarbone, then wired upward to the vagus nerve in the neck. The battery-operated disk delivers intermittent, rhythmic pulses to the nerve -- whose name means "wandering" in Latin -- that reaches a half dozen areas of the brain critical to treating depression, according to Dr. Darin Dougherty of Massachusetts General Hospital."

6/3/2007 6:28:20 PM

http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

6/3/2007 6:44:38 PM

haha /thread

6/3/2007 6:50:47 PM

I ain't gonna be bullied by either of you.

Science news is found on more than just WIRED. I am sure you can articles on CNN, BBC, ABC, MSNBC, etc, that didn't make it to Wired.

I will keep this thread alive by posting articles of WIDE APPEAL and great significance for humans.

6/3/2007 6:52:53 PM

Quote :

"Science news is found on more than just WIRED"

I think that was his point.

Cheating cheetahs caught by DNA
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6701515.stm

Quote :

"The female cheetahs that prowl the Serengeti in Tanzania appear to live up to their name, scientists have shown. DNA analysis of the spotted cats found that they were serial cheaters, with nearly half of their litters made up of cubs from different fathers. "

[Edited on June 3, 2007 at 7:00 PM. Reason : ,]

6/3/2007 6:57:23 PM

and yet the first 5 quoted articles in his own post come soley from wired

one thread per topic. its not like TWW is hurting for space

6/3/2007 7:53:43 PM

How is it news when those articles in the first post were made in 2004?

6/3/2007 11:33:13 PM

Dude, did you hear about this new scientific breakthrough in economics?

http://www.paidtypists.com I hear you can make like 500-1000 dollars at home in your spare time!!!11

6/3/2007 11:49:16 PM

Quote :

" A novel medical technique that smuggles an electrical charge into the brain through the vagus nerve is proving at least as effective as medication in controlling severe depression, psychiatrists say."

Doesn't that mean it's not that effective?

IIRC, depression medications have pathetically low effectivity rates.

6/4/2007 12:41:49 AM

i predict this thread will not make 2 pages.

6/4/2007 1:25:31 AM

Quote :

"Cheating cheetahs caught by DNA"

Thanks for that. I am always interested in any animal behaviour news.

Quote :

"and yet the first 5 quoted articles in his own post come soley from wired"

So? I happened to be reading Wired yesterday, and I didn't get a chance to look at news websites that I always look at nearly daily.

Quote :

"How is it news when those articles in the first post were made in 2004?"

Do you always exaggerate? 2 are from 2004, and 3 are from 2007. Anyway, did you know about the old ones? OK, Maybe the laptop/fertility one, but I posted that because I am a nice guy, to warn people.

Quote :

"http://www.paidtypists.com I hear you can make like 500-1000 dollars at home in your spare time!!!11"

There is no scientific breakthrough in that. You use a computer to make the money, and computers have been around for decades.

Quote :

"i predict this thread will not make 2 pages."

I predict it will last for years, and will reach several pages.

6/4/2007 8:37:21 AM

God some of you people are assholes. If you don't have anything meaningful to say just shut it. If you wanna read about science, come here. Otherwise don't waste everyone's time.

6/4/2007 9:18:31 AM

http://www.americanantigravity.com/

awesome website. i saw an interestign show this weekend on one of the Discoveries [Beyond Invention] ...111 TWC i think.

Anyways...talking about new energy machines. Esp. "The Hutchinson Effect"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7027255937915952897

watch those videos if you are not familiar with this...very cool science and technology

6/4/2007 9:42:00 AM

111 = Science Channel....by far the best discovery channel

wish they had it in HD

6/4/2007 9:44:53 AM

Hutchinson is a fraud. There is no such thing as anti-gravity. There are ways to produce gravitational fields that cancel out earth's gravitational pull, but there is, so far, no antigravity.

It's 20 years old, the guy hasnt ever reproduced his infamous films after they were exposed as fraudulent, and he hasn't done anything new in like 20 years. Not to mention have you ever seen where the guy lives?

Also, a self-taught physicist? Give me a break.

6/4/2007 10:06:04 PM

There was recently a "beyond invention" episode where they went to this guys house who had all these machines where they showed the Hutchinson effect in action. Shit was flying around everywhere.

[Edited on June 4, 2007 at 10:32 PM. Reason : Maybe it's the same guy]

6/4/2007 10:31:00 PM

^^How did they prove that the videos were fraudulent? I don't doubt you or anything, because most of that footage looks like it was just events that were played in reverse (so items weren't really levitating, they fell, but the footage was played in reverse to make it look as though the objects levitated), but I'm curious as to how they were actually debunked.

6/4/2007 10:59:45 PM

^^^^^^ stfu noob. wtf do you know, anyhow.

6/5/2007 4:37:07 AM

Man. I need to get me those 150K speakers so I can hear every breath and background noise on So.

6/5/2007 9:03:03 AM

^^ I know that your post contributes in no way to this thread.

http://www.kansascity.com/439/story/135409.html

The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.

[Edited on June 5, 2007 at 9:05 AM. Reason : ^]

6/5/2007 9:04:36 AM

http://www.outlookseries.com/RADIO/NIAC_S2.jpg

Quote :

"NASA is nurturing inventors with revolutionary scientific concepts. NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts 'NIAC' allocates funds for paradigm changing innovations that may be priceless in decades. For instance, NIAC has funded research into an Earth Cooling Space Sunshade. The proposal calls for cooling the Earth with a giant sun shield if global warming gets out of control. University of Arizona astronomer Roger Angel's plan is to launch trillions of tiny spacecraft to form a cloud about a million miles from Earth, in L-1 orbit. The cloud, which would have a diameter about half the size of the Earth, would reduce the amount of sunlight by 2 percent, or enough to counteract the doubling of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. The two-foot spacecraft would be made of transparent film, and weigh about the same as a butterfly. This global warming solution would cost a few trillion dollars and take 25 years to deploy, and could come into play if global warming ramps up and becomes irreversible."

http://www.outlookseries.com/RADIO/NIAC_Space_Sunshade.htm

[Edited on June 17, 2007 at 10:26 PM. Reason : image too big]

6/5/2007 9:08:12 AM

^what a silly (and old) idea

6/5/2007 9:35:08 AM

What makes it so silly? It's feasible.

6/5/2007 12:04:01 PM

do you have to CAPITALIZE the word SCIENTIFIC when the first "field of science" you cite is Teledildonics?

6/5/2007 12:19:14 PM

It is feasible, but governments would have to come up with the few trillions needed, and that is going to be hard, esp deciding who pays how much.

*******************************

VERY VERY INTERESTING, so I am going to quote all:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6606931.stm

Cannabis 'disrupts brain centre'

Quote :

"Scientists have shown how cannabis may trigger psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. A King's College London team gave healthy volunteers the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). They then recorded reduced activity in an area of the brain which keeps inappropriate thoughts at bay. THC levels are thought to have doubled in the most popular type of street cannabis - possibly at the expense of potentially beneficial ingredients. If something has an active effect in inducing the symptoms of psychosis after one dose, then it would not be at all surprising if repeated use induced the chronic condition Professor Robin Murray Institute of Psychiatry A separate study has shown that one of these ingredients - cannabidiol (CBD) - has the potential to dampen down psychotic symptoms, and could form the basis of new treatments. The research will be discussed at a conference on the impact of cannabis use to be held at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College this week. Dependency Although figures are not kept, it is estimated that as many as 500,000 people in the UK may be dependent on cannabis. Increasing numbers of people are seeking help for cannabis problems at specialist clinics. In 2005, only heroin users accounted for a greater proportion of patients. It is thought that average THC content of domestically grown herbal cannabis, which may now command up to two thirds of the UK market, has risen from 6% to 12% in recent years The Institute of Psychiatry study gave THC, CBD or placebo capsules to adult male volunteers who had not abused cannabis. They then carried out brain scans, and a battery of tests, and found that those who took THC showed reduced activity in an area of the brain called the inferior frontal cortex, which keeps inappropriate thoughts and behaviour, such as swearing and paranoia in check. The effects were short-lived, but some people appeared more vulnerable than others. In a second study, a team from Yale University administered THC intravenously. Even at relatively low doses, they found 50% of healthy volunteers began to show symptoms of psychosis. Volunteers who already had a history of psychotic symptoms appeared to be particularly vulnerable. Side effects A third study, by the University of Cologne, compared the effect of CBD and a commonly used anti-psychotic medicine, Amisulpride, on 42 patients with a history of schizophrenia. After four weeks both groups showed a reduction in psychotic symptoms, but the CBD group were less prone to side effects, such as muscle stiffness and weight gain. We strongly urge the government to heed the growing evidence and take urgent action to warn young people that some of them are risking lifelong mental illness Marjorie Wallace Sane The researchers warned that THC and CBD compete with each other biochemically, so a rise in THC levels would blunt any positive impact of CBD. Professor Robin Murray, a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, said the research provided the strongest evidence that cannabis had a significant impact on the brain. He said proving a long-term effect was extremely difficult, as it was not ethical or feasible to stimulate long-term psychosis in volunteers. However, he said: "If something has an active effect in inducing the symptoms of psychosis after one dose, then it would not be at all surprising if repeated use induced the chronic condition." Professor Murray also warned that the high potency cannabis now widely available was likely to pose a much bigger risk to health than the significantly weaker formulations of previous years. "It is similar to comparing the effect of drinking a glass of wine at the weekend with drinking a bottle of vodka every day." Marjorie Wallace, of the mental health charity Sane, called the research a "significant contribution" to the understanding of the dangers of cannabis. "Sane has been saying for years that there is a link between psychosis and the drug, particularly in its more potent forms. "We strongly urge the government to heed the growing evidence and take urgent action to warn young people that some of them are risking lifelong mental illness - that they are playing Russian roulette with their minds." "

[Edited on June 5, 2007 at 12:28 PM. Reason : DO YOU HAVE TO BE A FUCKING PROFESSIONAL TROLL?]

6/5/2007 12:27:20 PM

^ True. I'm not saying it's what we need to do. It's just that people were laughing at the idea of a space elevator many years back.

6/5/2007 12:40:09 PM

injecting THC intravenously huh

yep, thats how all the kids are doing it nowadays

6/5/2007 12:44:49 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6712923.stm

'Exercise after eating' diet tip

Quote :

"Exercising after meals can help promote weight loss by boosting hormones that suppress appetite, say UK scientists. Thanks to these hormones, active people feel less hungry immediately after exercise, and this carries through to their next meal, experiments suggest. Even when their meals were bigger, sporty people gained fewer calories overall because they burned off more. "

6/5/2007 1:02:22 PM

Quote :

"Hutchinson is a fraud. There is no such thing as anti-gravity. There are ways to produce gravitational fields that cancel out earth's gravitational pull, but there is, so far, no antigravity. It's 20 years old, the guy hasnt ever reproduced his infamous films after they were exposed as fraudulent, and he hasn't done anything new in like 20 years. Not to mention have you ever seen where the guy lives? Also, a self-taught physicist? Give me a break. "

well, i guess i am going to forward a memo to THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL that the next time they are going to do a docu. on new energy they FIRST need to CONSULT with the GREAT Noen who knows everything about everything

if he is such a fraud then why didnt Discovery cover that?

6/5/2007 2:02:28 PM

Quote :

"if he is such a fraud then why didnt Discovery cover that? "

Because he probably wouldn't have gone on discovery if he knew they were going to call him a fraud. And Discovery's primary purpose is to entertain, not educate. Do you really think they represent a bastion of scientific integrity? It's like thinking The History Channel is always going to give you accurate history.

6/5/2007 2:15:56 PM

Quote :

"And Discovery's primary purpose is to entertain, not educate"

lol

i guess that whole 11 episode series of Planet Earth was made just to entertain
even though all the people involved said it was to .... get this now...'EDUCATE' the world on what humanity is about to lose unless a behavioral change is made in the way we live


i know that show Myth Busters is very entertaining...i just wish i could learn something from watching it.

ohhhh, that documentary i watched the other day on Stephen Hawking was also very entertaining....if it were only educational i might could have learned something


You know what would be really cool? If Discovery would get involved in education around the world.....oh wait [Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership]

6/5/2007 5:10:14 PM

I learned from watching the desert episode of Planet Earth that some swarms of locusts have billions of locusts and the swarms are 20 miles wide!

6/5/2007 5:21:04 PM

i guess this qualifies as scientific-ish
from my petfood industry email:

Quote :

"Melamine scandal update China's ex-food and drug safety chief was given a death sentence recently for taking bribes from drug companies and approving unsafe medicines. The sentence was announced by state media. Zheng Xiaoyu, director of China's State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, was convicted of dereliction of duty and taking more than US$832,000 in cash and gifts, according to state news agency Xinhua. An antibiotic approved under Zheng was withdrawn from the market last year after 10 patients died, state media reported, and six types of fake drugs were approved while he led the agency. Zheng's sentence requires review by a higher court and approval by China's highest judicial panel before he can be executed. On a related note, Chinese authorities have announced plans for a system that would enable them to recall unsafe or unapproved foods."

no more melamine in our dog food !

6/5/2007 5:30:05 PM

Shonia on China stem cell journey
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6720453.stm

British girl with cerebral palsy being taken to China for stem cell treatment, which is of course unavailable/illegal in the West. Would be interesting to see what happens.


US arrests internet 'spam king'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6707333.stm

Quote :

"A man nicknamed the "spam king" for allegedly sending out millions of junk e-mails has been arrested in the US. Prosecutors say Mr Soloway became one of the world's biggest spammers, using computers secretly infected with orders to send out millions of his e-mails. Such computers are known as "zombies" because their owners often have no idea they have been hijacked for another purpose. Prosecutors want to seize the sum of $773,000 (£391,000) that Mr Soloway is said to have made from his firm. If convicted of all the charges, he also faces a fine of $250,000 (£126,500) and a maximum prison term of 65 years. "

GG!


Brain tumour link to pesticides
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6712913.stm

Quote :

"Agricultural workers exposed to high levels of pesticides have a raised risk of brain tumours, research suggests. The French study also indicated a possible higher risk among people who used pesticides on houseplants. "

'The results have been brilliant'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6722435.stm

Very cool!

Quote :

"Don Kane was one of a handful of patients to receive the early stage of a surgical treatment to cure age-related macular degeneration . . Eventually, Don's eyesight deteriorated to the point where he had to give up driving, he could no longer make sense of the print in the newspaper, and he could not recognise people's faces. . . This involves taking cells from a corner of the eye which are unaffected by AMD, and transferring them into the central area where the disease has taken hold. The cells then seed, and begin to replace the affected tissue. . . He can now read the newspaper with a magnifying glass, has taken up cycling again, and he is back on his computer. "

Cold object delights astronomers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6720831.stm

Quote :

"Astrophysicists have found a star-like object with a surface temperature just one tenth that of the Sun. The cold object is known as a brown dwarf: a "failed" star that never achieved the mass required to begin nuclear fusion reactions in its core. This one - called J0034-00 - is thought to have a surface temperature of just 600-700 Kelvin (up to 430C/800F). "

6/5/2007 6:01:43 PM

Here is a very good one:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/04/china.environment/index.html

China: Economic growth, environmental destruction

Here are the bleakest and scariest bits:

Quote :

"According to environmental monitoring group the Worldwatch Institute, China now boasts 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities. As much as 70% of the country's water is suffering from pollution, with an estimated 300 million people drinking contaminated water on a daily basis, and 190 million drinking water that is so contaminated it effects their health. Crop returns are decreasing both in terms of quality and quantity as a result of polluted land; while approximately 400,000 people in China die annually from respiratory infections directly attributable to air pollution. "The sheer scale of the economic activity in China means that pollution is as probably bad as it has ever been anywhere in the world, ever," Lester Brown, head of Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, told CNN. "Such is the pollution haze in many of the cities that you can't even see the sun. "A lot of the rivers are so dirty their water can't now be used for irrigation, while some of the soil is so badly contaminated with cadmium and mercury that there is a question as to whether food grown in those soils is safe to eat." Nor is the cost just human and environmental. Ironically given that it is China's bullish economic growth that is fueling such high levels of pollution, that same pollution is proving increasingly detrimental to the country's economic well being, with the China's economy losing an estimated $200 billion annually due to the effects of pollution and global warming, almost 10 percent of its GDP. "The U.S. Environmental Protection agency, for example, has about 17,000 staff. The equivalent organization in Beijing has less than 1,000."

6/6/2007 5:30:35 PM

WOW, pretty cool!



The clear gel expands to hold liquids; other uses include time-release methods for watering plants. Photo: Courtesy of Prof. Luigi Ambrosio



Jelly belly: from about the size of a spit wad the compound grows to a tennis ball so dieters sit down feeling full.


http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/06/dietpill

Jelly in the Belly: A Diet Pill That Expands So You Don't

Quote :

"MILAN -- Italian scientists are testing a new diet pill that turns into a clear, gelatinous blob the size of a tennis ball that may help shrink waistlines by giving dieters a sense of satiety. . . The unnamed pill is made from a cellulose compound of hydrogel, a material that's powdery when dry but plumps up to a cousin of Jell-O when wet. The gel can soak up to 1,000 times its weight. A gram in capsule form quickly balloons from the size of a spit wad to a ball that holds nearly a liter of liquid. . . If trials are successful, researchers hope to put the gel pill within easy reach of calorie counters on both the EU and North American markets in about a year. "

6/10/2007 2:00:40 PM

WTH???

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/06/07/heavystar_spa_02.html

Quote :

"Modest stars like our sun can only cook up elements as big as carbon — merely the sixth element out of more than two hundred and sixty."

Someone messed up big time.

6/10/2007 5:18:18 PM

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/nerve_communication

A Shocking Idea: Nerves Might Run on Sound, Not Electricity

Quote :

"According to their controversial theory, electricity is just a side effect of how nerves really operate: by conducting high-density waves of pressure that resemble sound reverberating through a pipe."

Read the whole thing. Very interesting and revolutionary.

6/11/2007 2:56:42 PM

Quote :

"The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases."

Their treatment of NASA has really bothered me. The administration is cutting funding for all kinds of useful information like satellite surveying of the Earth and satellite studies of global warming in order to fund high profile, high risk programs that will go over budget and not provide much useful information.

Every president has planned some wild space program ever since JFK said that he wanted to put a man on the moon - however, as there is no space race and no president has been shot after making his declaration, none of them have happened.

6/11/2007 3:16:19 PM

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/06/12/plasticblood_tec.html

Plastic Blood Could Save Lives

Quote :

"June 12, 2007 — A synthetic blood made from plastic molecules could one day help save the lives of soldiers on the battlefield or victims of natural disasters. It is devoid of the problems associated with human blood, such as disease, compatibility and availability, and it can be developed into a dehydrated, "just-add-water" substance, giving it a longer shelf life. "The method is cheap and we can make tons of this material if need be," said Lance Twyman, professor of chemistry and lead researcher on the project at the University of Sheffield in the U.K."

6/13/2007 3:10:14 AM

WOW

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19195624/

Netted whale hit by lance a century ago
Wound allows researchers to age 50-ton creature at about 115 years old

Quote :

"BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale’s age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7508288/

Whale-dolphin hybrid has baby wholphin

Quote :

"HONOLULU - The world's only known whale-dolphin mix has given birth to a playful female calf, officials at Sea Life Park Hawaii said Thursday. The calf was born on Dec. 23 to Kekaimalu, a mix of a false killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Park officials said they waited to announce the birth until now because of recent changes in ownership and operations at the park. The young as-yet unnamed wholphin is one-fourth false killer whale and three-fourths Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Her slick skin is an even blend of a dolphin's light gray and the black coloring of a false killer whale. . . Kekaimalu, whose name means "from the peaceful ocean," was born 19 years ago after a surprise coupling between a 14-foot, 2,000-pound false killer whale and a 6- foot, 400-pound dolphin. The animals were the leads in the park's popular tourist water show, featured in the Adam Sandler movie "50 First Dates.""

OMG SLUT going outside the species

6/14/2007 1:48:36 AM

Some of the coolest stuff:

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USSYD9740620070615

The grind's almost over to forge two perfect balls

Quote :

"CANBERRA (Reuters) - They will be the earth's roundest spheres, crafted by Australian scientists as part of an international hunt to find a new global standard kilogram. Ever since scientists discovered that the current standard -- a bar of platinum and iridium held in a French vault since 1889 -- was slowly deteriorating, the search has been on for a replacement. Using a single crystal of silicon-28 grown by Russian and German scientists over three years, a team of Sydney scientists and engineers will grind and polish two silvery balls, each weighing precisely one kilogram, with imperfections of less than 35 millionths of a millimeter. "We are doing everything to really create a perfect object. It's not only near-perfect in roundness, but also the crystal purity, the atomic species and so on," project leader Walter Giardini told Reuters on Friday. "Silicon is a very nice material to use that we understand well, makes good crystals and can be worked," said Giardini, from Australia's National Measurement Institute. The two balls will take 12 weeks to create and, because they are made from a stable element, they will not fall victim to moisture, corrosion and contamination like the current kilogram standard, known as the International Prototype. The spheres will be a step along the perfect kilogram road, with the project's ultimate aim to re-define the kilogram in terms of numbers of atoms, rather than an object open to damage from earthquake or environmental changes. "The aim is not to change the value of the kilogram, but to ensure its stability for all future times," Giardini said. "It will no longer depend on an actual physical object and this is going to allow us to relate the mass to the individual atoms." The project is a collaboration involving scientists from Russia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Japan, the United States and Australia, in cooperation with the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. On completion, the spheres will be measured for volume in Australia, Germany and Japan, then measured for mass. Belgian scientists will look at the molar mass of the crystal used to calculate the number of molecules in each sphere. Australian scientists have the most expertise in grinding near-perfect spheres, having been turning them out for clients including NASA since the early 1990s. "We have developed technology so that we can see what we are getting, whether they are slightly oval or flat. We are trying for an accuracy of two parts in 100 million," Giardini said."

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSSYD7373520070615

Jet engine tested at 10 times speed of sound

Quote :

"CANBERRA (Reuters) - An experimental jet engine has been successfully tested at speeds of up to 11,000 km (6,835 miles) per hour, or 10 times the speed of sound, during trials in Australia's outback, defense scientists said on Friday."

6/16/2007 11:54:10 PM

Waiting two minutes to cut cord 'can give babies health boost'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=462477

Quote :

"A brief delay in cutting a newborn baby's umbilical cord can significantly improve a child's health, a new study reveals. Waiting just two minutes before severing the cord can halve the risk of serious blood disorders and have an 'important impact', on a baby's wellbeing. The major study, involving more than 1,900 newborns, found the two-minute delay was enough to reduce the risk of anaemia by half and low iron levels in the blood by a third. Most British babies have their umbilical cords cut immediately after birth. However, between ten and 20 per cent of women already ask for the procedure to be delayed for health reasons. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, will add weight to the theory that delaying is best for the baby. Eileen Hutton, assistant dean of midwifery at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, who carried out the research, said: 'The results of our study clearly show this reduces the incidence of anaemia and improves iron stores in newborns. And, more importantly, these benefits extend beyond the early neonatal period.' "

The IVF timebomb: Are fertility treatments damaging our children?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=462644

Quote :

"From the U.S. comes research that the common practice of storing fertilised embryos can provoke genetic changes that may develop into mental and behavioural disorders later in life; from Canada come claims that IVF can increase some birth defects tenfold; while from Denmark a study of young men finds those conceived through fertility treatment are 50 per cent more likely to be infertile themselves. . . With all parties desperate for results, the tendency has been to use more drugs to produce more eggs and — hopefully — more babies. But critics claim this approach has resulted in increased risks to the mother (cancers, clots and hyperstimulation) and to the unborn child, as well as an explosion in multiple births. "

6/17/2007 8:11:35 PM

gunzz:

please see http://socialtech.ca/ade/index.php/2005/05/the-discovery-channel-is-bogus-2/#comment-398

and

http://socialtech.ca/ade/index.php/2005/06/more-on-hutchison/

Also, does it not seem very suspicious that he hasn't been able to reproduce his results EVER?

6/18/2007 1:09:08 AM

Making plastics directly from glucose:

Glucose is the main carbohydrate product of photosynthesis and a primary source of energy in most living things. It is a sugar and the human body's main source of fuel. And, because of its ubiquity, it is a leading candidate to replace oil as an abundant source for fuels, plastics and other petroleum products.

Unfortunately, converting the stuff into useable forms remains a difficult process. For example, using acid catalysts to transform it into a basic building block for plastics also yields a vat of impurities (such as levulinic and formic acids). But now chemists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash., have come up with a way to efficiently and cleanly turn such naturally occurring sugars into plastics, making Tupperware from trees a real possibility.


Chemist Conrad Zhang and colleagues at PNNL tested a variety of metal catalysts—compounds that speed chemical reactions—in their search for an efficient method of transforming glucose and other natural sugars into hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a molecule that can easily be manipulated into a variety of chemicals and plastics.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=3017C38C-E7F2-99DF-38D3D954CA9B3133

6/18/2007 10:45:32 AM

how stupid do you have to be to think discovery channel is a primarily entertainment channel?

Do you watch any of the bbc/discovery channels and/or specials? Christ.

[Edited on June 18, 2007 at 10:56 AM. Reason : not entertainment only]

6/18/2007 10:51:10 AM

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070614-plants.html

Quote :

"Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin."

6/18/2007 11:15:54 AM

^ wow, nice!

Thanks for posting (you and others)

This one is old, but gold:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/23/1111525227607.html

Pearly wisdom: oysters are an aphrodisiac

Quote :

"The team of American and Italian researchers analysed bivalve molluscs - a group of shellfish that includes oysters - and found they were rich in rare amino acids that trigger increased levels of sex hormones. They found two unusual ones - D-aspartic acid (D-Asp) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). "They are not the normal amino acids that Mother Nature uses," said Dr Fisher. "You can't just find them in a vitamin shop." The oysters have to be eaten raw to be most effective, because cooking reduces the quantity of D-Asp and NMDA molecules."

6/18/2007 5:02:59 PM

bttt i guess

8/26/2007 9:50:13 PM

I gave up on this, because no one bothers to respond/discuss.

I know that half the things I have posted here would have generated 0.5-1 page threads if I had posted them in their own threads. But for some reason, when put together all in here, people don't respond.

Anyway, here is the latest one, which I know would generate a lot of responses in its own thread, so let's see what happens here.

****************************************************************
News/discoveries like this totally turn me on

This is some freaky stuff right here.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UNIVERSE_HOLE

Quote :

"Astronomers Find a Hole in the Universe By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday. Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the universe where nobody's home. In fact, one such place is practically a neighbor, a mere 2 million light years away. But what the Minnesota team discovered, using two different types of astronomical observations, is a void that's far bigger than scientists ever imagined. "This is 1,000 times the volume of what we sort of expected to see in terms of a typical void," said Minnesota astronomy professor Lawrence Rudnick, author of the paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal. "It's not clear that we have the right word yet ... This is too much of a surprise." Rudnick was examining a sky survey from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which essentially takes radio pictures of a broad expanse of the universe. But one area of the universe had radio pictures indicating there was up to 45 percent less matter in that region, Rudnick said. The rest of the matter in the radio pictures can be explained as stars and other cosmic structures between here and the void, which is about 5 to 10 billion light years away. Rudnick then checked observations of cosmic microwave background radiation and found a cold spot. The only explanation, Rudnick said, is it's empty of matter. It could also be a statistical freak of nature, but that's probably less likely than a giant void, said James Condon, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He wasn't part of Rudnick's team but is following up on the research. "It looks like something to be taken seriously," said Brent Tully, a University of Hawaii astronomer who wasn't part of this research but studies the void closer to Earth. Tully said astronomers may eventually find a few cosmic structures in the void, but it would still be nearly empty. Holes in the universe probably occur when the gravity from areas with bigger mass pull matter from less dense areas, Tully said. After 13 billion years "they are losing out in the battle to where there are larger concentrations of matter," he said. Retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran said of the discovery: "This is incredibly important for something where there is nothing to it.""

[Edited on August 26, 2007 at 9:52 PM. Reason : ]

8/26/2007 9:50:31 PM